• Article

Add or remove language packs after deployment of Office 2010

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-01-06

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You can add or remove language packs for an existing Microsoft Office 2010 installation. This article describes the two methods that you can use to complete this and how to view a list of the languages that are installed.

In this article:

  • Overview

  • Before you begin

  • Modify an existing installation

  • Deploy language packs

  • Remove language packs

  • Identify installed languages

Overview

Although the most frequently deployed languages for Office 2010 are released at the same time as the product, many other Office 2010 Language Packs are released over time. The Office 2010 Multi-Language Pack, which includes all available language packs, is not released until after all the individual language packs are released. However, if you upgrade your multilingual organization to Office 2010 before all the language packs are released, you can add or remove languages later. The Office 2010 Multi-Language Pack and Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit CDs for Office 2010 are available through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs.

There are two methods that you can use to add languages after you deploy Office 2010:

  • Modify an existing installation. By using this recommended method, a language is treated as another feature to add to a deployment of Office 2010. This method involves modifying the Config.xml file to add the appropriate language and rerunning Setup.exe. This method installs only the necessary language parts for the products installed on the user's computer. For example, if you add Japanese to an installation of Microsoft Office Professional 2010, the Microsoft Visio 2010 resources for Japanese are not installed. However, if the computer has both Office Professional 2010 and Visio 2010 installed on it, you would have to add the Japanese resources for each product through two separate operations.

  • Deploy Language Packs as separate products. By using this method, there must be at least one Office 2010 product installed on the computer. This method involves running Setup.exe for the Office 2010 Language Pack that you want to install so that the full Language Pack is installed to the computer. This method is appropriate for adding languages after a deployment of Office 2010 where you do not know which set of products Office 2010 are installed on users' computers.

Before you begin

It is important to determine which languages will be used at the beginning of your deployment. If you change users' configurations after the initial deployment and include additional languages as part of your customizations, you must first copy all the Office 2010 Language Packs you want to deploy to the network installation point that contains the Office product files. For example, \\server\share\Office14. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization .msp file. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing .msp file is not updated to reflect this change. Addressing this issue involves the following steps:

  1. Create a new customization file by using the Office Customization Tool (OCT).

  2. Import your existing customization .msp file by using the File \| Import command in the OCT.

  3. Make any additional customizations that that you want and then save the .msp file.

  4. After you update the installation source with additional languages, deploy the new .msp file to users.

Failure to create and deploy a new .msp file might result in unexpected behavior, because the changes to an existing customization .msp file will not apply to the languages that were added. If you do not create a new .msp file and import the existing .msp file into that file, your deployment may test correctly in your lab, but users might not see the new language in their Office 2010 applications, or they might see only a subset of the language features. For more information, see To import a customization .msp file to add languages to an existing installation in the article Import an Office 2010 Setup customization file and Change users' configurations after installing Office 2010.

For information about how to create a network installation point with multiple languages, see Customize deployment of language setup and Proofing Tools in Office 2010.

For a complete list of language tags, see Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2010.

Modify an existing installation

The recommended method for adding languages to an existing installation of Office 2010 is to run Setup again and modify the existing Office installation. Because you are only modifying the original installation, no new entry appears in Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.

You cannot replace the language of the shell user interface (Shell UI) that was installed during the initial installation. The Shell UI includes core elements of Office that register with the operating system, such as file name extensions, Tool Tips, and right-click menu items.

When you update a multilanguage installation, you can specify that the new language matches the user locale that is set on the local computer. For example, if your organization includes both English-speaking and Russian-speaking users, you might first deploy English to everyone. Later, when the Russian language pack becomes available, you can add the following line to Config.xml:

<AddLanguage Id="match" />

In this case, Setup installs Russian language elements on any computer that has the user locale set to Russian. Users with an English user locale are not affected.

To deploy additional languages after Office is installed

  1. Copy the files and folders in the new language packs from the source media to the original network installation point. When you are prompted to overwrite Setup files, click No.

    Each language pack includes language-specific elements for every product in the Office 2010. However, Setup installs language-specific elements only for the Office product that you are updating.

  2. In the core product folder for the product that you are updating, locate the Config.xml file.

    For example, if you are adding languages to an installation of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, find the Config.xml file in the ProPlus.WW folder.

  3. Open Config.xml in a text editor, such as Notepad.

  4. Find the <AddLanguage> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

  5. Set the value of the Id attribute to the language tag that corresponds to the language that you want to install. You can specify more than one language by including additional <AddLanguage> elements and attributes.

    For example, to add the Russian language pack, the line should resemble the following example:

    <AddLanguage Id="ru-ru" />

  6. If you add more than one language in Config.xml, you must specify one language as the language for the Shell UI. For example:

    <AddLanguage Id="ru-ru" ShellTransform="yes" />
<AddLanguage Id="en-us" />

    You must specify a ShellUI language, even though Setup does not change the ShellUI language that was set for the initial installation.

  7. Save the Config.xml file. Run Setup.exe and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file.

    You must use a full qualified path. For example: \\server\share\Office14\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office14\ProPlus.WW\Config.xml

    where Office14 is the root of the network installation point.

    Because Setup also recognizes language packs as separate products, make sure that you specify the Config.xml file for the Office product that you are updating, and not the language pack.

To deploy these languages for new Office 2010 installations, see Specify which languages to install in the article Customize deployment of language setup and Proofing Tools in Office 2010 and import existing customization .msp files into a new customization .msp file. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization file. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing customization file is not updated to reflect this change. For more information, see To import a customization .msp file to add languages to an existing installation in the article Import an Office 2010 Setup customization file.

Deploy language packs

If you deployed multiple Office 2010 products in your organization and you must add more language support, you can deploy language packs as separate products. In this case, Setup installs language-specific elements for every product in Office 2010. No matter which products users have installed, users can access the additional language versions.

For this deployment method to work, there must be at least one Office 2010 product installed on the computer that you are deploying to.

When you deploy language packs separately, you must consider the disk space that is required on users' computers. Language pack requirements range from 800MB to 1.5 GB of hard disk space that is needed.

Language-specific elements for Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Visio 2010 are installed separately. In each language pack, the core product folder for Project 2010 is PMUI.ll-cc. The core product folder for Visio 2010 is VisMUI.ll-cc.

To deploy language packs

  1. Copy all the files and folders in the new language pack from the source media to a location on the network. If you are using an Office 2010 Multi-Language Pack, you can copy just the files and folders for the languages that you want to install. When you are prompted to overwrite Setup files, click No.

  2. In the core product folder for the language pack that you are installing, locate the Config.xml file.

    For example, if you are installing the Russian language pack, find the Config.xml file in the OMUI.ru-ru folder.

  3. Run the language pack Setup from the root of the network installation point for the Office 2010 Multi-Language Pack or Office 2010 Language Pack, and specify the path of the Config.xml file on the command line. For example:

    \\server\share\Office14\LP\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office14\LP\RU\OMUI.ru-ru\Config.xml

    where Office14\LP is the root of the network installation point for the language packs and RU is the language folder name.

    Complete the previous steps for each language that you want to install.

To deploy these languages for new Office 2010 installations, see Specify which languages to install in the article Customize deployment of language setup and Proofing Tools in Office 2010 and import existing customization .msp files into a new customization .msp file. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization file. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing customization file is not updated to reflect this change. For more information, see To import a customization .msp file to add languages to an existing installation in the article Import an Office 2010 Setup customization file.

Remove language packs

If the Office 2010 Language Packs were deployed as separate products, the Language Packs can be removed by using Windows Add or Remove Programs.

If the Office 2010 Language Packs were deployed with Office 2010 and not as separate products, the procedure to remove them resembles the deployment of the Language Packs. Instead of using the <AddLanguage> tag, use the <RemoveLanguage> tag. See the procedure that follows for the specific steps.

You must follow these steps for each language that you want to remove.

To remove language packs

  1. If the language was deployed with the Office product (not as a separate product), locate the Config.xml file in the core product folder for the product that you are updating.

    For example, if you are removing languages from an installation of Office Professional Plus 2010, find the Config.xml file in the ProPlus.WW folder.

  2. Open Config.xml in a text editor, such as Notepad.

  3. Find the <Display> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

  4. Set the value of the Level to "basic" or "none", CompletionNotice to "yes", SuppressModal to "yes", and AcceptEula to "yes".

    The line should resemble the following example:

    <Display Level="basic" CompletionNotice="yes" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />

  5. Find the <AddLanguage> element. If it is in the file, comment out the line by adding opening <!-- and closing --> tags around the element.

    The line should resemble the following example:

    <!-- <AddLanguage Id="ru-ru" /> -->

  6. Add the <RemoveLanguage> element.

  7. Set the value of the Id attribute to the language tag that corresponds to the language that you want to remove.

    For example, to remove the Russian language pack, the line should resemble the following example:

    <RemoveLanguage Id="ru-ru" />

  8. Save the Config.xml file.

  9. If you edited the Config.xml file in the core product folder, run Setup.exe and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file.

    You must use a fully qualified path. For example:

    \\server\share\Office14\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office14\ProPlus.WW\Config.xml

    where Office14 is the root of the network installation point.

    \\server\share\Office14\LP\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office14\LP\RU\OMUI.ru-ru\Config.xml

    where Office14\LP is the root of the network installation point for the language packs and RU is the language folder name.

    You must complete the previous steps for each language that you want to remove.

Identify installed languages

In the registry, you can view a list of languages installed for the Office 2010 either during the initial installation or during a separate installation of a language pack.

Although all applications in the Office 2010 use a shared set of registry data to determine their UI language, they do not necessarily all appear in the same UI language. Applications in Office 2010 usually appear with the UI language indicated in the UILanguage value of this registry key. But there are circumstances where this might not be the case. For example, some deployments might have Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Excel 2010 installed in French, but another Office 2010 application installed in a different language. In this case, the other application will look at the UIFallback list in this registry key, and use the first language that works with its installed configuration.

To identify installed languages

  1. Open the registry.

  2. Expand the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResources\EnabledLanguages.

  3. The LCID for the language is displayed. To identify the language, see Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2010.

  4. To view the UI language, view the following registry key values and refer to Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2010.

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResources\HelpLanguage

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResources\UILanguage

  5. To view the fallback languages, view the registry key value for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResources\UIFallback. To identify the language, see Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2010.